topic Re: Palo Alto Session count - Session per second - Connections per Second in General Topics

Palo Alto Session count - Session per second - Connections per Second

Metgatz — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 19:15:37 GMT

Palo Alto Session count vs Session per second vs Connections per Second

Hello good afternoon community, I hope everyone is well.

Can someone help me regarding some values that I need to clarify and confirm that they are the following

For Palo Alto they are or as a deference the measure of:

"Session Count", "Session per second ( SPS )", "Connections per Second ( CPS )".

Session Count I think they are the active sessions, session per second the rate of sessions based on some measure of time, connections per second, this measure is not very clear to me.

Example if I review in Panorama, Summary, Health and I review the data of the 30 days of a FW, in the "Sessions" section an average value of the 30 days of CPS 25,000 or 25K appears and for Sessions Count of 250.00k or 250,000 . This is why I have the confusion on which they are based to differentiate: Session Count, Session per second, Connections per Second.

If anyone has the details, bibliography, link with the explanations, information or if you know the differentiation please help

Thanks

Best regards

Re: Palo Alto Session count - Session per second - Connections per Second

TomYoung — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 19:34:14 GMT

Hi @Metgatz ,

I don't see "sessions per second" on my Panorama. I see the following:

Session Count = Total session count over time (five-minute average).

Connections per Second = Total CPS for the device over time (five-minute average). = new connections

Packet per Second = Total packets per second (averaged over five minutes) that passed through the device.

I got those definitions by clicking on the ? in the upper right and navigating to Panorama > Managed Devices > Summary : Detailed Device Health on Panorama : Sessions.

Thanks,

Tom

Re: Palo Alto Session count - Session per second - Connections per Second

Metgatz — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 19:45:26 GMT

Hello @TomYoung , thanks for answering.

Regardless of whether these data can be obtained by cli, via snmp statistics with a monitoring server, from Panorama or by the direct GUI of the Fws, the point is to know the detail of the terminology, which each of them includes What measure is it based on and how do they differ? It may not be in the view that mentions Panorama Sessions per second or New Sessions per second, but if you see a datasheet from a FWs if the detail is there or from a Monitoring server that interprets the session data.

https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/apps/pan/public/downloadResource?pagePath=/content/pan/en_US/resources/datasheets/pa-5200-series-specsheet ( Max sessions, New sessions per second ).

The point and focus of the post is the differentiation of CPS or connections per second, vs. New Sessions per second or Sessions per second, via Session count, on what is it based to differentiate each one, in what measure of time, average, data, type of connection etc. For example Session Connection, how it differs, and why the number of sessions is greater than that of CPS, this to give an example.

Thanks for the collaboration

Best regards

Re: Palo Alto Session count - Session per second - Connections per Second

TomYoung — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 19:52:19 GMT

Hi @Metgatz ,

Very interesting! I think the data sheet should read connections per second. The values are almost the same as here -> https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/products/product-comparison?chosen=pa-5260,pa-5250,pa-5220.

That is the 1st document where I have seen sessions per second.

Thanks,

Tom